The Story in History

Svetlana Alexievich won the 2015 Nobel Prize in Literature for her documentary narratives of life in the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia. An author who has committed her life to channeling the voices of others now assumes the role of speaker in this wide-ranging conversation with Nina L. Khrushcheva.

KYIV – In 2015, the oral historian Svetlana Alexievich was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for her “documentary novels” showcasing life in Russia and in the Soviet Union before its collapse. Through multi-voice narratives distilled from hundreds of conversations, Alexievich composes a symphony of meaning from what would otherwise be a cacophony of memories. Her work captures not only the emotions of its subjects, but also the very essence of what humans experience, and how they behave, under conditions of unrelenting stress.

An exceedingly private person, Alexievich recently met with Nina L. Khrushcheva in Ukraine, where both were participating in a Holocaust memorial project. Over the course of several afternoons, Alexievich, an author who is more accustomed to listening than speaking, shared her thoughts on politics, literature, and even on the craft of conducting interviews. “You ask really small human questions,” she advises. “That’s how people open up. When you ask a big one, such as, “What do you think of Russian President Vladimir Putin?,” people issue declarations instead of saying what they really think.”

Gulag Psychology

Nina Khrushcheva: I won’t ask what you think of Putin. Instead, I want to ask why Putin is popular in Russia. What are the qualities that make him so?

Svetlana Alexievich: Putin is trying to “raise Russia from its knees” under his renewed brand of Russian nationalism. In the Soviet Union, a person was subordinate to the idea of a great nation. His life had little value outside of the state. Personal life was insignificant compared to the higher ideals of universal communism. The Soviet man was given welfare-state stability, however meager, in exchange for the lack of freedom.

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Why US media like PS invite exclusively Russia-haters when they would like to hear an opinion on Russia? Khrusheva and Alexievich are such persons. By depriving itself from a real Russian voice, by surrounding itself only with talking heads like the two ladies in this interview, the US only perpetuates its bubble mentality of arrogance towards the rest of the world.

"People got refrigerators, microwaves, cars, and so on" - exactly. These are all the benefits people soviet people craved for, and not western-style "freedom".

"freedom...has developed for hundreds of years in, say, Germany or France" - haha. Germans and French are not free as the US pushes its foreign policy down their throats, as Brussels pushes their opinions aside, as national leades like Merkel etc push for their personal policies of mass migration against the will of the public, as common Germans and French are deprived of real informaiton about Russia and the rest of the world by the media that pushes American supremacy and elites' agenda.

"a slave cannot immediately become free" exactly because of this we need to educate citizens of the West about the reality, of what slave role their national and American governments have prepared for them.

"Because of that psychology, Russia lives with a myth of national greatness" =- not true. Russia lives with an idelogy of stopping to be humilated again and again by the US and its followers. Russia dreams about its women not becoming prostitutes serving Western gentlemen, about keeping connections with relatives in Ukraine and other former USSR countries that US and its Western European slave countries brainwash to hate Russia and Russians. You wouldn't see a single Russian flag anywhere in Russian cities, unlike in the US, where national flags are everywhere. You wouldn't ever hear that Russia is more special than other nations from Russian political leaders, unlike in the US where one can hear statements about "this great nation daily". Why Alexievich and Khrusheva avert our attention, trying to deprive Russians of even basic self-respect?

"still trying to get to European-style capitalism" - nobody is trying to get that. It's outdated. Speak for yourself, lady.

"Zelensky....wanted to try, and he got it" - Oligarkh standing behind him wanted to try and got it.

"It’s that new generation that sincerely wants to do something for Ukraine, in order to break out of the cycle of slavery – of surrendering to power." - jumping from real brotherhood with Russia into American slavery, as Ukraine and Ukrainians means nothing to the West except its role against Russia. Nice.

"That’s why there are so many Soviet retro restaurants in Russia today" - that is part of our (Russian) history and part of our daily routine. If some Alexievich hates Russian history and Russian routine - it doesn't mean common Russians should hate too.

" We are still fighting wars: there are Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine" More like there are US-backed nazi-haters in central and western Ukraine.

"Lukashenko has shown strongly that he doesn’t want to serve as just another one of Russia’s governors." - is that a real reason not to unite with Russia? That some politician doesn't want to see his power reduced? If Belorussians want to united with Russia - it should happen. That the real democracy lesson Alexievich should learn.

"Still, there is hope. Many people last month began protests against Belarus’s unification with Russia." Still many more Belorussians are pro-Russia, despite Western propaganda and Lukarshenko wish to stay a local czar. Why Alexievich doesn't speak about this pro-Russian majority? Because in reality she hates democracy and uses it only as a pretext to wrap her hate of Russia in legitimate terms.

"Putin decided to increase the pension age in Russia to fill the state coffers on the people’s backs." - riterement age in Russia was 55 for women and 60 for men and was set by Stalin (whom Alexievich hates but whose policy she defends) in the 1950s. Life expectancy has increased dramatically since that time and Russian retirement age is definitely lower than in Western countries (that Alexievich loves so much), even when adjsuted for life expectancy difference. The policy filles coffers of future retirees and not the state. So Alexievich is being both populistic and one-sided on this. Would one expect more from a hater?

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